The Desolate Era

Ji Ning’s body blurred, transforming to become 540,000 meters tall. However, compared to the titanic fiery-scaled void dweller, he was still a bit smaller.

“Die!” The creature lashed out at Ning with its terrifyingly sharp claws, which its physical prowess ensured were deadlier than even Universe treasures.

Bang! Ning was instantly torn apart into countless pieces.

“Eh?” The fiery-scaled void dweller was shocked. “An illusion!” Everything it could see was nothing more than part of the illusions created by Ning’s Sword Dao!

“Storm Execution!” Six streaks of sword-light howled forth, slashing against the blazing flames covering the scaled creature’s neck. It stumbled backwards, but nothing more than a few white marks were left behind on the scales protecting the neck. However, right as Ning’s swords connected with the creature’s neck, Ning used the Dao of Karma to pour the power of the strike throughout the creature’s body, causing internal destruction with abandon.

“What a powerful cultivator!” The scaled creature lifted its head up, letting out a bellow: “But your illusions are useless against me!”

BOOM! The flames covering its body expanded dramatically, its internal flames pouring out from within to cover an area of a million kilometers. The power of these flames was so great that it actually managed to push back Ning’s Sword Dao Domain and his heartworld projection.

“My six strikes weren’t even able to break its scales! I was able to injure its vital essence through karma, but as an Autarch-class void dweller it has an absolutely prodigious amount of essence.” Ning immediately began to consider what to do next. The flames the void dweller had released were pushing back against the Sword Dao Domain. Once it overtook Ning’s illusions, Ning would be forced to reveal his true location and he would no longer be able to catch the creature offguard.

Kill it through the Karma Sword Dao? That was too time-consuming! The Autarch-class stone lifeform the Autarchs had encountered and slain all those years ago had been indestructibly hard, as it truly was a stone by nature. Not even the Autarchs were able to injure it, and so their only option had been to exhaust it to death after tens of thousands of years!

However, Ning felt certain that this scaled creature wouldn’t be quite as tough to deal with as that stone lifeform had been. There had to be a flaw Ning could exploit.

“Its body is unspeakably powerful, which is why it has Autarch-class power. It has far more vital essence than actual Autarch’s; to kill it using the Karma Sword Dao is going to be too slow. I’ll have to come up with another idea for breaking through its defenses... but I hit it six times in a row and merely left behind a few white marks on its scales.”

Ning pondered for a moment, then came to a conclusion.

“Die, cultivator! Die!” The towering scaled creature charged at Ning with incomparable ferocity, its tail smashing apart anything which got in its way.

Now that Ning had some experience from their first clash, he immediately changed tactics. Whoosh! Ning dodged in a ghostly manner, transforming into the storm itself as he charged towards the scaled void dweller.

“He’s fast!” The scaled creature was shocked. “Only One-Eye is his superior in speed.”

The wind and the lightning thundered in harmony, with the scaled creature’s claws and tail completely unable to stop Ning’s attack.

“Kill!” Ning simultaneously chopped out with all six swords at the same time, his swords spinning out like the spokes of a wheel! The edges of each sword was covered in blurry light. A closer look would’ve shown that the blurry sword-light was actually composed of countless interspersed white and black specks of light that were connected to each other. The specks of light were spinning in blaze, with the white light blazing like fire while the black light hissed with dark corrosive power.

The Dark Sword Dao – it infused corrosive darkness into the Dao of the Sword

The Light Sword Dao – it infused blazing light into the Dao of the Sword.

When joined together, they came to form the Cycle Sword Dao which Ning had developed. Working in harmony, the two were able to support and reinforce each other with tremendous synergy, allowing for blazing strikes of corrosive power that ate through anything in its path! It was like the merciless cycle of life and death itself, chopping through all things in its path.

Whoosh! Six streaks of gray sword-light shot out at the same time, spinning at the scaled creature like the blades of a giant windmill.

Boom! Boom! Boom! The corrosive power of the Cycle Sword Dao was utterly unstoppable. Even the fiery-red scales of the void dweller began to crack. Moments later they broke apart entirely, with a gaping wound appearing below them. Gold blood seeped out, followed by the flesh quickly healing.

“You actually injured me!” The scaled creature went completely berserk. A layer of red light appeared over its entire body, and its power increased dramatically. It began to launch a furious counter-attack while howling, “Hurry up and help me out, you old bastard!” Its scales were its pride and joy. The fact that they had been shattered caused it to feel that it was in danger.

“Coming.” The dragon turtle immediately came flying over.

“Illusion Sword Dao!”

The scaled creature’s flames were only able to cover an area of a million kilometers; beyond that, Ning’s illusions continued to reign supreme. Countless Nings appeared within that area, and all of them began to assault the scaled creature from afar at the same time. The dragon turtle had no idea which one was the real one.

Whoosh! Whoosh! The light of the Cycle Sword Dao continued to spin out like the spokes of a wheel, its strikes screaming through the air from a million kilometers away. A million kilometers might seem to be a very great distance, but it was actually extremely short for someone of Ning’s abilities. All it did was give the scaled void dweller a chance to react to Ning’s attacks, but there was no way the dragon turtle would be able to actually help it.

Ning was completely dominant on a technical level. His Cycle Sword Dao once more tore open a giant gaping wound in the scaled creature’s body.

“Aaaaaaah! Die, die!” The scaled creature launched wild counter-attacks with abandon, but Ning was far too nimble. Each time after he attacked he retreated back into his illusions, making it impossible for them to locate where he truly was.

“Old bastard! Old bastard!” the scaled creature called out furiously.

“I can’t locate the real one! Each time he moves into extremely close range as he attacks, then retreats right away. I don’t have enough time!” the dragon turtle responded anxiously as well.

“During the last war we fought against the Sithe, two Autarch-class void dwellers were on their side. The end result was that both of them died, while all of us were untouched.” Ning’s voice rang out in the air as he continuously launched more attacks, his terrifying Cycle Sword Dao repeatedly ripping huge wounds into the scaled creature’s body.

The scales were so extremely durable that Autarch-class attacks were generally unable to breach them, but Ning’s Cycle Sword Dao was a perfect counter and so Ning was able to breach through them. Given how tough the scales were, they were equally difficult and time-consuming to repair once destroyed.

“All you creatures can do is rely on the natural power of your bodies.”

Slash! Another wave of attacks from the Cycle Sword Dao chopped past the scaled creature.

“Even if we cannot beat you, staying alive is simplicity itself... and once we find your weaknesses, you are dead.”

Slash! Slash! The light of the Cycle Sword Dao left more and more gaping wounds on the scaled creature’s body.

“The Sithe put you here, yes... but did you really think they intending on letting you survive? They simply wanted you to slow us down at the cost of your own lives.”

Riiiiip! The scaled creature’s long tail was actually severed midway through!

“Ahhhhhhhh!” The scaled void dweller’s titanic body was now covered with wounds. Its tail had actually been chopped off, and even its arms were half-severed. Its lacerated flesh was quickly healing, but its scales wouldn’t be able to recover within a short period of time. It grew increasingly frantic, as it could sense how death was impending.

“One-Eye!” the scaled creature roared loudly.

The skinny cyclopean creature was battling Autarch Mogg nearby and had been keeping an eye on the situation. It called out anxiously in its shrill voice, “I can’t find his true body, and he’s too fast! Your flames aren’t able to cover enough area to force him to reveal himself.”

“I can’t expand my domain any further!” the scaled creature said frantically. It had created this flaming domain from its own power, and it wasn’t easy for him to strengthen those flames to a level where it could simultaneously suppress both Ning’s Sword Dao Domain as well as Ning’s heartworld projection! It could only maintain enough power to do both up to a distance of a million kilometers; this was the creature’s maximum limit! Alas, a million kilometers was a short enough distance that neither of the other two Autarch-class void dwellers would be able to interrupt Ning’s incredibly fast attacks.

“Damn.”

“Stop that!” Both the Autarch-class creatures were turning frantic.

Slash! One of the scaled creature’s arms was completely severed off.

“I surrender! I surrender! Spare me!” The scaled creature finally began to panic as those terrifying streaks of sword-light tore through its scales once more. “Spare me and I’ll obey you in all things!” action

“Obey me? I wouldn’t dare to place any faith in you.”

There was no way for these Autarch-class void dwellers to swear lifeblood oaths. The only agreements they could make were oral agreements, and they could go back on those agreements whenever they pleased!

“No...!”

Ning’s sword-light continued to chop down mercilessly. Ning only sped up the pace after most of the creature’s scales had been destroyed, and his sword-light flew about with abandon as he completely chopped the scaled creature apart into countless pieces. A red gemstone suddenly appeared, and it was able to survive even Ning’s furious blows of sword-light. The faint outline of the scaled creature could be seen within the red gemstone, and it was still begging Ning: “Don’t kill me!”

Ning had unleashed a total of 3,220 strikes in destroying this Autarch-class void dweller’s body. He immediately grabbed the red gemstone, then cast a seal across it.

“I’ve already captured this one, and I can destroy it with a thought.” Ning turned to glance at the other two Autarch-class void dwellers, his voice echoing within the area: “Are the two of you willing to stand with us now? Or are you still going to stand with the Sithe?”